A question regarding innate aggressive behavior

[GrayPhilosophy]

Hello there science folks!

Pardon if this is indeed the wrong forum, but it seemed fitting.

I'm not sure how relevant this is compared to usual sciency discussions, but I am am a humble creative writer in search of answers for a video game project that I'm dabbling in. While it is fiction, I love trying to base it on something that is at least realistic in theory.

What I'm wondering is, is there a certain center in the brain that governs aggressive and or violent behavior, or something along those lines? In the sense that a creature could adapt or develop in such a way that it was more prone to aggressive or considerably violent behavior, without necessarily being malicious for the sake of causing harm.

In other words would it be possible for a species as a whole to be innately more violent than other species, but without actually being violent for the sake of abuse. And if so, what would most likely be the cause?

Think dense brutes who aren't aware that bashing things with heavy objects makes it "not fun" for the things getting bashed.

Edited January 30, 2016 by GrayPhilosophy

[iNow]

Many animals are prone to great aggression and it's doubtful they do it just to be mean as if socio or psychopathic. It's usually about survival in a dangerous world and generally involves the limbic system and release of hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, and testosterone coupled with response to specific stimuli (a territorial creature has their space intruded upon, for example).

[CharonY]

Well following that thought an animal would just have to be vastly disproportionately stronger than whatever they are interacting with. A friendly pounce could be deadly.

[fiveworlds]

Many animals are prone to great aggression and it's doubtful they do it just to be mean as if socio or psychopathic. It's usually about survival in a dangerous world and generally involves the limbic system and release of hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, and testosterone coupled with response to specific stimuli (a territorial creature has their space intruded upon, for example).

 

 

I agree aggression is generally the result of a fight or flight response. However certain illnesses have an effect on aggression such as Alzheimer's. It is important to note that aggression is not abusive behavior which is generally repetitive.

[iNow]

Part of the aggression sometimes seen among those with Alzheimer's is related to fear from not being able to understand what's happening coupled with cascading failures in cerebro-cortical function that increase reliance on less conscious aspects of the reptilian brain, but that's all quite obviously off-topic.

[The Angry Intellect]

There is another cause for strange aggression to develop in humans & animals, rabies. Once the symptoms set in, the disease can then become one of 2 types of rabies, but the one that causes humans (not just animals) to become confused and respond with aggression most of the time is called "furious rabies" - aptly named so.

 

Otherwise it is unlikely that an animal or "creature" through the process of evolution would come out naturally "aggressive" all the time.

 

However, animals, humans, creatures alike can become aggressive or be more prone to violence if their surrounding changes drastically or when "someone else" comes to visit and decides to stay long-term.

 

For instance if they are removed from their natural habitat and put somewhere else, or if they have an "invader" show up in their territory - another animal or creature that decides to make it's home nearby, could cause the animal or creature to always be on edge and wanting to be more aggressive.

 

Although this is usually a show (display) of aggression, as opposed to an actual onset of physical aggression towards everything else.

 

Your best bet for whatever it is you are working on, is to base this creature around the following premise: It was taken from it's home (with some of it's family/friends) and dumped in a strange place surrounded by other unknown colourful or loud creatures..

 

Maybe it has "evolved" over the past few million years being forced out of it's home into other areas repeatedly every few hundred years or so - or even more far fetched, purposely taken from it's home planet & dumped into other planets over the course of millions of years in some strange immortal alien race's evolutionary experiments.

[Phi for All]

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Moderator Note

I've moved this out of Speculations, since the OP is interested more in mainstream answers. If this changes, we can move it back, but as long as we're not charging off into the weeds, I think we'll get more informative answers and fewer hijacks of the original ideas here in Anatomy, Physiology, and Neuroscience.

[Sirona]

Aggression like almost all behaviour/personality has a genetic component so to answer your question, yes, naturally some are more aggressive than others. Studies on young infants show that the genetic factor is stronger for physical aggression than environmental factors. However, over time aggression can be self managed to a certain degree due to negative consequences of the behaviour.

 

Other environmental factors not mentioned that could contribute is lead poisoning which although is not a serious problem for youth today, did affect youths in previous decades. Lead poisoning results in lower IQ and aggressive tendencies. Other than the medical conditions listed above, hyperthyroidism can also cause irritability and aggression too, imbalanced hormones for women such as high level androgen hormone. Sometimes head injuries/trauma or brain tumours can change personality/behaviours to become more aggressive. Another factor could be exposure to extreme heat.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Sirona

[GrayPhilosophy]

These are all fantastic answers so far, thanks a lot to everyone of you who's taken the time to explain, it's helped a lot

[DrmDoc]

 

Hello there science folks!

Pardon if this is indeed the wrong forum, but it seemed fitting.

I'm not sure how relevant this is compared to usual sciency discussions, but I am am a humble creative writer in search of answers for a video game project that I'm dabbling in. While it is fiction, I love trying to base it on something that is at least realistic in theory.

What I'm wondering is, is there a certain center in the brain that governs aggressive and or violent behavior, or something along those lines? In the sense that a creature could adapt or develop in such a way that it was more prone to aggressive or considerably violent behavior, without necessarily being malicious for the sake of causing harm.

In other words would it be possible for a species as a whole to be innately more violent than other species, but without actually being violent for the sake of abuse. And if so, what would most likely be the cause?

Think dense brutes who aren't aware that bashing things with heavy objects makes it "not fun" for the things getting bashed.

 

The amygdala, which is one of several structures comprising the limbic system as iNow informed, is key to emotional expressions including aggression. Although amygdala function is central to aggressive expression, mediation of that expression involves a concert of brain activity primarily governed by prefrontal brain function. If the amygdala was a child, then the prefrontal would be considered its parent. Prefrontal function informs us that our actions have consequences, which is something a child is capable of learning with normal prefrontal development. Additionally, decerebrate cat studies have associated certain aggressive postures with hypothalamic function. Cats with brain structures surgically removed to the hypothalamus level engaged this rigid behavior whenever aroused. Regarding the amygdala, it isn't so much that its function causes aggression than its malformation disinhibits certain aberrant behaviors.